Follow guideline for postoperative pain
Follow guideline for postoperative pain
Guideline based on 7 criteria
Ineffective pain management means unnecessary postoperative pain for patients. In response to concern that patients are suffering from too much pain, the Rockville, MD-based Agency for Health Care Policy and Research adopted a Clinical Practice Guideline for Acute Pain Management: Operative or Medical Procedures and Trauma. (For more information on guideline, see Same-Day Surgery, June 1992, p. 89.)
These are the requirements and principles those guideline is based on:
* Requirements:
-- Pain intensity and relief must be assessed and reassessed at regular intervals.
-- Patient preference must be respected when determining methods to be used for pain management.
-- Each institution must develop an organized program to evaluate the effectiveness of pain assessment and management. Without such a program, staff efforts to treat pain may become sporadic and ineffectual.
* Principles:
-- Successful assessment and control of pain depends, in part, on establishing a positive relationship between health care professionals and patients. Patients should be informed that pain relief is an important part of their health care, that information about options to control pain is available to them, and that they are welcome to discuss their concerns and preferences with the health care team.
-- Unrelieved pain has negative physical and psychological consequences. Aggressive pain prevention and control that occurs before, during, and after surgery can yield both short- and long-term benefits.
-- It is not practical or desirable to eliminate all postoperative pain, but techniques now available make pain reduction to acceptable levels a realistic goal.
-- Prevention is better than treatment. Pain that is established and severe is difficult to control. *
For more information about patient education in pain management, contact:
* Barbara Duryea, Director of Education, Windber Hospital, 600 Somerset Ave., Windber, PA 15963. Telephone: (814) 467-6611. Fax: (814) 467-3451.
For free copies of patient brochures in English or Spanish and the pediatric or adult versions of the Quick Reference Guide for Clinicians on the clinical practice guideline for acute pain management, contact:
* The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Publications Clearinghouse, P.O. Box 8547, Silver Spring, MD 20907. Telephone: (800) 358-9295. By fax: (301) 594-2800. Web site: http://www. AHCPR.gov/guide. Then click on "clinical practice guidelines online."
For copies of the complete clinical practice guideline, Acute Pain Management: Operative or Medical Procedures and Trauma ($5.50, AHCPR publication no. 92-0032), contact the U.S. Government Printing Office:
* Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. Telephone: (202) 512-1800. Fax: (202) 512-2250.
For copies of the 10-minute video, "A Patient Guide to Pain Control After Surgery" ($150, plus $5 shipping and handling), or the clinician video for staff education titled "Research Utilization: Implementing the AHCPR Guideline on Pain Management" ($225, plus $5 shipping and handling), contact:
* Horn Video Productions, 607 W. Second St., Ida Grove, IA 51445. Telephone: (712) 364-4676.
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